Today: we look at the stats, the statistics of the most well-known social media. This is a quick overview, and if it looks like a match, you can investigate further. The numbers were gathered by my office from a variety of sources.

Social media has become very important for business today. It is a strong component of referral networking, being a great way to learn about a referral. It is also one of the main pillars of good search engine optimization because Google goes through social media sites. There is Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Plaxo, FourSquare, YouTube, Myspace and Buzznet for musicians; AsianAvenue and BlackPlanet and others for ethnic communities; DailyStrength for the health industry; HR.com for Human Resources; Jiepang and Renren for China; Yelp for reviews. There are over 200 social media sites. How do you keep up? It is a flood. What if a customer goes on any of them and says something about your business? What are you going to do about it?

If you are being overwhelmed, or worried that you will be, it doesn’t have to be this way. Social media is so important that it would be worse to do nothing, but for your own sanity, you have to be selective about what you join. What can you do?

Set up a service like Google Alerts to monitor your company name or industry. Who is talking about you or your company?

Look at your Google Analytics, your traffic stats for your website, to see who is getting to your website through social media.

Look at the big players in your industry. What social media are they using? Is it effective? Different social media works for different types of business, which is another huge topic. Read up what specialists in social media are saying.

Check the stats for each social media and see how they compare to your demographics. Where will you find your ideal clients?

Find out how often people expect responses on social media. For example, Twitter is pretty immediate. On Facebook, people expect a response in a few hours, but you can add fresh content twice a week and no more than once a day. For LinkedIn, you can take days to respond.

Then take all that information and determine how that fits in with your business and your available time. Can you do it yourself, or should you hire out? For example if you choose Twitter and you are on a computer all day, that will work because you can do a fast response. But if you spend all day at the top of a ladder? Kind of hard to tweet, or you’ll often be using the #HelpImFalling.

While some abbreviations and acronyms may be common across all social media sites, others are unique to the microblogging platform. Browse our guide, and be sure to shout out any terms we’ve missed in the comments below.

@

The “at” sign is used to mention another Twitter account (e.g., @Mashable). Within a tweet, it becomes a link to that user’s profile. You may see it used in a geographical sense, such as “I’m @ the office,” but this is just text-speak and not Twitter-specific.

#

The hash (or pound) symbol is used to highlight keywords, topics, events or even emotions in a tweet. Using a hashtag turns the word or phrase into a link that lets you see other tweets containing the same tag. Examples: “Loving the #weather,” “Watching the #SuperBowl,” “Headed to #SXSW,” “Long day — feeling #tiredandemotional.”

^

The caret, or hat sign, is used to denote a tweet composed and sent by an individual on behalf of a group account used by multiple people (often a company or organization) account. It usually appears at the end of a Tweet and precedes initials, to indicate which user sent the tweet (e.g., ^JS).

$

The dollar sign is used on Twitter before a company’s shortened stock market name/code as a kind of financial hashtag. For example, $AAPL (Apple), $GOOG (Google) and $MSFT (Microsoft). Within tweets, codes prefixed with the dollar sign will become links.

AFAIK

“As far as I know.”

CC

CC’s literal meaning is “carbon copy.” As with memos and emails, CC is a way of ensuring a Twitter user sees certain content. Used with an @ mention — for example, “Interesting article – www.urlurl.com – cc @Bob” — it will help draw a Tweet to someone’s attention.

CX

“Correction.”

DM

Direct message. A way to privately message someone who is following you on Twitter. As the only way to have a confidential conversation on the platform, it’s usual to see public tweets with “DM me for more info,” or “I’ll DM you details,” etc.

FF

#FF stands for “Follow Friday,” a way to give an endorsement or shout out to other Twitter users by suggesting that people follow them.

HT

Occasionally styled H/T, “hat tip” is a way to give a polite nod to the person who originally shared content you are tweeting. Similar to giving someone a “via” (which is a phrase also used on Twitter) a HT will be followed by an @ mention giving a namecheck. For example, “Useful article – www.urlurl.com. HT @Bob.” Some suggest the meaning is “heard through.” This is a less common definition, but is pretty much the same sentiment.

ICYMI

“In case you missed it.” Often employed when a Twitter user retweets his or her own content from earlier.

MM

“Music Monday” used to be a popular way to suggest music you were currently enjoying or artist recommendations. It isn’t used very often now, though you may still see a few #MM tweets at the start of the week.

MT or MRT

Modified tweet or modified retweet. This means the same as “retweet” but used to show that you’ve edited the original tweet, usually due to space restrictions.

NSFW

“Not safe for work.” This term denotes potentially inappropriate or graphic content.

OH

“Overheard.” Although in the wider world, OH is more likely to mean “other half,” on Twitter, it’s a way of reporting a humorous or eyebrow-raising comment.

PRT

Partial retweet. A way of letting people know you’ve edited a tweet. Can also mean “please retweet.”

RLRT

Real life retweet. Similar to OH, RLRT is used when you tweet a notable quote from someone “in real life.”

RT

Retweet. Forwarding another user’s tweet, usually with an added comment, letting the “RT” abbreviation mark the end of the forwarder’s comment and the start of the original tweet, e.g., “Must watch! RT @Bob: This video is cool www.urlurl.com.”

SMH

Shake/shaking my head. An expression of disbelief or disappointment. Can also be used to express puzzlement — “scratching my head” — although this is a less popular usage.

TFTF

“Thanks for the follow.”

TIL

“Today I learned…”

TLDR or TL;DR

“Too long; didn’t read.” Can be used literally to indicate content that was too lengthy to wade through to the end. However, the term is more likely to be used in banter, or as a dismissive comment or insult.

TMB

“Tweet me back.”

TQRT

“Thanks for the retweet.”

TT

Translated tweet: a warning that an original tweet has been translated to a different language.

In brief: The survey by the Internet Advertising Bureau of over 4500 people states “… that social media can drive ROI by driving brand sentiment, encouraging consumer engagement and increasing brand loyalty….four out of five consumers would be more inclined to buy a brand more after being exposed to their social media, with 83 per cent happy to trial the product…”

Ian Ralph, who conducted the research, says, “…to create an emotional connection brands really need to provide clear, timely and, most important of all, relevant content that develop a conversation. Interestingly, we also found that brands really shouldn’t be afraid about having their products on show and of linking up their social media activities to their business objectives. Social media has the potential to turn brand customers into brand fans. By making people love, not just like your brand, you’re more likely to drive future purchases and increase sales.”